Star Wars: The adventures of Ryo Vaarik
by SharkYT
Summary: A young boy lost in his fathers X-wing and hunted by The First Order, along with his droid friend will find allies and enemies on his journey through the Galaxy.
1. Prologue

Prologue

"Okay bud, now the targeting system controls are here." the man pressed a small button on the control panel, the targeting system slowly drew itself outwards and rotated to the right, covering the boy's eyes. "That's it, now I'll show you the flying controls."

"Wow! Can I fly the ship?" the boy responded happily.

"I don't think so, not for a few more cycles bud." The man chuckled as he showed his son the flight controls of his X-wing.

"Hey dad, if I'm 14 now then how old do I actually have to be to fly a ship?"

"Well I think the age is probably around 15 to 16."

"What about The First Order? Do they have a different age range for pilots?"

"Not sure son, possibly."

"Dad, are you ever going to let them near our house?"

"No, son, those beasts won't get to us unless they go through me…"

A few hours later…

The boy sat in the cockpit of his father's X-wing (alone this time), and continued to run through everything his old man had taught him about the little starfighter. His father had been a pilot for the rebellion, joining not long after the battle of Endor. He had gone on many missions including the well known battle of Jakku which he had retold his son many times over. 'Hey Ryo! Come wash up for dinner!' His father called out from inside the house. 'Coming papa!' As Ryo began

To get out of the cockpit he accidently hit a button on the console that he'd never touched before, a hologram instantly switched on revealing a man dressed in black with red hair. Von Salmi? This is General Hux of the first order, I'd like to talk to you...

Well yeah, Prologue to my new story. Hope you all enjoy!


	2. Chapter 1: Lies and deception

Ryo switched off the hologram as fast as he could, he hated looking at the smug face of General Hux, but he wanted to know what this was about. The First Order?! Contacting his father?! How come he never knew about this? Why hadn't his father told him? He had to find out what this was about, Ryo ran as fast as he could towards the house. And crashed right into the family Astromech Droid.

"R5?! Where you spying on me or something?"

The little R5-D4 Astromech responded with a series of beeps and whistles.

"Wait, aren't you meant to be working on the Speeder Bike R5?

R5 clicked and beeped as he grumpily rolled back to where he was meant to be.

"Ryo! I said dinner's ready!"

"Yep! Coming Papa!"

Ryo hurried inside and took off his shoes and makeshift pilot's helmet. Ryo's father, mother and protocol Droid sat down at the table.

"Remind me why the Droid sits with us?" Ryo asked.

"He's a part of the family as well, he may not be able to EAT the food but he can still sit down with us and enjoy family time."

"Okay then, and now you can tell me why The First Order is sending you Holo messages!" Ryo shouted at his father accusingly.

"Von? Is this true?" Ryo's mother asked, looking up from her food and cup of blue milk.

"Hey Li, I think we need to go and have a little chat." Ryo's father responded, the two got up and quietly left the room leaving Ryo with the family Protocol droid.

Oh, I'm sure it's nothing master Ryo." The droid said with his usual cheerful voice…

The next day…

Ryo walked out to the Speeder Bike still wondering what had happened the night before, he had been up all night thinking about it, his parents had never acted like that before and it felt weird. R5 rolled out in front of Ryo.

"Did you finish working on the bike R5?" the little droid beeped happily in response.

"Okay, thanks bud. I better get to town." Ryo jumped on the bike, started it up and instantly whizzed off into the distance...


	3. Chapter 2: The Storm

Ryo sped through the Asharan plains, his speeder bike made the most terrifying sound as it whizzed past. He arrived at Bogan trade center and parked it.

"Hey kid, your parents send you out on the milk run again eh?"

"Yeah, lemme guess. There's still a shortage on Blue Milk and you'll have to charge me extra?"

"Smart boy, that'll be 7 credits."

"Hey, can you chuck in some speeder bike fuel as well?" Ryo asked.

"I sure can, you know what? I'll give the fuel to ya for free kid." The man at the counter said with a friendly wink.

"Thanks man, I really apprec…"

Ryo trailed off as he saw two First Order Stormtroopers showing people a photo of something, or someone. He covered his face with goggles, a hood and a piece of clothing to cover his mouth. The two Troopers arrived and spoke with the typical First Order Smugness in their voices.

"Have you seen this boy?" The trooper in the front showed Ryo a photo of… Himself.

"Uuuhh, n, no sir." Ryo managed to babble out, terrified. Why was The First Order looking for him? What had he done? As soon as the Troopers were out of sight he sprinted back to his bike and practically flew onto it, he started the little motor and raced off into the dry grass plains. When Ryo arrived home he rushed inside to confront his father, he saw his parents putting protective casing over all the windows and doors while the Protocol droid helped clean the furniture.

"Dad what's going on? I need to tell you something!" Ryo almost yelled at his father.

"Look Ryo, there's a huge storm coming! I need you to go get R5 inside b

"Not now!" Ryo ran outside to grab R5, furious at his father. The Astromech was in the middle of repairing one of the moisture vaporators when Ryo swept out of nowhere and grabbed him, R5 squealed in protest but froze when he saw the massive sandstorm approaching. Ryo carried the droid inside and placed it down on the floor, he then ran as fast as he could back to the door and slammed it shut as the storm smashed into the house. Ryo looked outside and saw the moisture vaporator R5 was just working on get ripped clean out of the ground and blew off into the distance.

A few Hours later…

"Dad? I think it's gone." Ryo whispered in the darkness, he slowly pulled open the metal window cover. The storm had mostly dissipated but the air was still thick with dust and sand and almost everything outside was trashed, Ryo suddenly began to hear something in the distance. A distant whining whistling sound, it slowly grew from a distant whine to a mechanical howl. A First Order TIE fighter flew right over the house and swept across the plains, it flew away and disappeared over the hills...


	4. Chapter 3: Attack Of The Probes!

The might of the Finalizer's engines moved the massive ship through space, due to it's size it appeared to be travelling extremely slowly but it was travelling fast enough to outrun a few kinds of starfighters and light cruisers.

"Tie SS09 ready for takeoff, bay 7." A TIE fighter pilot said over the comms.

"Tie SS09 clear for takeoff bay 7, tether disconnecting now." The refueling cable tethering the small starfighter popped out of it's wing and the ship's engines began to roar to life, the Tie fighter rose up out of it's little pocket and almost instantly screamed away into the black of space.

"Tie SS09 on my way."

"Roger SS09." The Tie fighter descended towards the Planet Ashara, it sped across the plains and towards a large sandstorm. The very young but experienced pilot managed to fly over the storm and began to fly in a very large circle, as the storm began to clear the pilot changed direction. A small house was revealed in the dissipating sand and dust, the pilot flew his craft straight over the settlement and over the hills across from it. As his craft disappeared from view at the house a small pod dropped from the ship and flew itself down to the ground. As the pod dropped further and further a small slowing rocket ignited in the bottom and the pod's speed drained. Once the pod hit the ground it split in half revealing a probe droid used back when the Empire was around. The droid's legs lowered and the typical chattering noise began to emit from it, it floated over to a rock ledge overlooking the house.

"Okay dad, I really need to tell you something. The craziest thing happened to me at the market today." Ryo said to his father, almost desperately.

"It can wait Ryo, we need to clean up the property. Can you go get a spare moisture vaporator from my workshop and have R5 install it? You saw what happened to the last one." Von responded calmly.

"Rrrr fine! But you WILL listen to what I have to say when him and I are done!" Ryo said back, frustrated. He went and grabbed a moisture vaporator then went looking for R5. However, he was met with the several eyed face of a probe droid hovering over R5's disabled metal body.

"R5! NOOO!" Ryo screamed in fury as he grabbed the blaster pistol from his belt. The probe met his blaster shots with an instant energy blast to the chest that knocked Ryo out, Von came out of the house with a heavy repeating blaster rifle and blasted the droid with plasma. However, his hits did not affect it and it prepared to fire another disabling shot. As it fired it was suddenly knocked out of the air and it crashed into the ground in a tangle of metal legs, R5 loomed over it with his strut boosters activated. He landed and shocked the probe with an electrical charge, knocking out it's shield. Von, again shot the droid but this time his shots ripped through it's armour and destroyed it's metallic insides. The probe droid was dead, it twitched and sparked on the ground as dust still leftover from the storm began to settle on it.

"Tie SS09 returning to base, the drop was successful."

"Roger SS09, the droid was destroyed as planned. We now know their meagre defences, prepare your men for an assault on Ashara. Also get the troops ready and prepare a walker!"

End of chapter 3...


	5. Chapter 4: The First Order Strikes

A massive dropship and several troop transports slowly lowered out of the Finalizers main underbelly Hanger entrance. The dropship carried a massive Base Defence Walker and the troop transports were filled to the brim with Stormtroopers. Two Tie fighters flew out from one of the side hangers on the Finalizer, the group of First Order ships headed down for Ashara.

C'mon R5, we need to get this thing running." Ryo said to his Astromech droid, R5 beeped and whistled in response.

"Look, you keep working on this thing. I need to go back to the market to get some replacement parts for my bike, you better be done when I get back or there'll be hell to pay. Hey 3PO! Supervise him so he doesn't slack off!"

"Of course master Ryo, I would be delighted to oblige." E-3PO walked in his Protocol droid way out to where R5 was working on the moisture vaporator, Ryo jumped on his now extremely dusty bike and sped off towards the market. When he got there he was met with a very horrible sight, the Bogan Trade Center had been almost completely destroyed by the storm. Ryo got off his bike and walked over to the destroyed tents and small posts with smudged signs and bursted fruits and vegetables everywhere, he helped some people up out of the rubble of their former homes/trading areas. As Ryo went to find a place for spare parts people began pointing towards the horizon and screaming, Ryo could only really make out something about the first order coming. He looked into the distance and saw a pretty well sized group of ships approaching from the sky, there appeared to be two fighters, some troop transports and a dropship carrying some sort of massive walker.

"Woah, that's some serious hardware! Wonder what they're doing here with that sort of equipment… Wait a minute, they're headed straight for… Home." Ryo instantly let out a scream of terror as he sprinted back to his bike with everything he could muster, he jumped on and started the engine. The boy and his bike sped off with a metallic roar into the distance, Ryo arrived home to see a place of Horrors. The Tie fighters flew overhead while Stormtroopers shot down the walls of the house, the massive Walker fired it's twin cannons on the front and half of the entire house exploded and erupted into flames.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Ryo screamed in terror, the Stormtroopers heard him and a couple of them started firing their blasters but it was too late for them. Ryo had already jumped back on his bike and fired a shot from the canon mounted underneath. The Stormtroopers all flew into the air as the shot hit the ground right at their feet, E-3PO emerged from the shed.

"Master Ryo! I thought we were all done for! We need to get out of…

Before 3PO could finish a Tie fighter fired a shot at him and the droid was blown to pieces, his head landing at Ryo's feet.

"Ryo!" His parents emerged from what was left of the house terrified for their lives, before they could reach their son a Stormtrooper fired a shot at them. Ryo responded by killing him with a shot from his blaster pistol, Von and Li continued running towards Ryo and the three finally reunited.

"Ryo! You need to take the X-wing with R5 and get out of here!

"No dad! I'm not leaving you!" Ryo yelled.

"Just listen to me! You're too important! You're the reason why they're here! Now just go before they kill us all!


	6. Chapter 5: Escape from Ashara

R5 and Ryo both went as fast as they could go towards Von's X-wing, Ryo jumped in the cockpit and R5 boosted himself into the droid socket. Ryo started the engines and the tarp covering the back of the craft flew off, the X-wing slowly rose into the air and Ryo locked the S-foils into attack position. R5 activated the shields as Stormtroopers began firing on them.

"Dad never showed me how to fire the guns!" Ryo said to what was his droid now, R5 beeped a reply and Ryo looked at where the droid was talking about. On the control stick there was a button and a big trigger, Ryo pulled the trigger and the four canons on the wings simultaneously fired. The four shots hit the Stormtroopers and roughly seven of them flew into the air, the Walker finished trampling the remains of the Vaarik home and turned to the hovering X-wing. It prepared to fire it's forwards canons and Ryo pressed the button on the stick, nothing happened so he pulled the trigger. This time, two Proton Torpedoes launched from the ship and hit the Walker square in the body. It collapsed in a smoking heap on the ground, Ryo looked into the corner of his eyes and saw the two Tie fighters flying straight for him. They began to fire as Ryo grabbed the throttle on the left side of the cockpit and slid it all the way forwards, the X-wing's engines instantly responded and the ship sped away faster than anything Ryo had ever seen. It swept through the countryside and over the currently rebuilding Bogan trade center, the Tie fighters followed but began to lag behind. They continued shooting at Ryo, he pulled the stick all the way back and the X-wing looped upwards and behind the two First Order fighters, Ryo pulled the trigger and two more Proton Torpedoes launched out. The Tie fighters split and flew in opposite directions, each one with a Torpedo on it's tail. Ryo flew what was now his X-wing away from the Ashara planet's surface and into the upper atmosphere, as he gained more and more altitude he began to see something in the distance of space. It started off as a blur but slowly took a dagger shape, it was the Finalizer. The massive Battle Cruiser began firing all 15,000 of it's Turbolasers and Ion canons, R5 squealed in terror at the sight of the massive ship and the thousands of lasers heading straight for them. Just before the lasers reached the tiny starfighter, R5 input some coordinates into the hyperdrive and Ryo pushed a flashing button that sent them into Hyperspace. The hundreds of stars stretched from tiny glowing dots in the black of space to infinitely long glowing lines that were then engulfed by a blue wavy cloud. They were away…

End of chapter 5

So what do you guys think so far Aye? If you are reading this then feel free to write a review or go check out my youtube channel.  channel/UCdiw_2_0mfsyD_WZEQjxB0A


	7. Chapter 6: The wheel Part 1

Ryo finished his immediate mourning of his parents death and got ready to arrive at their destination wherever it was, R5 beeped and the hyperspace button began flashing again. Ryo pressed it and the blue of hyperspace was replaced by a massive space station orbiting around an unknown planet.

"So what's this place called again R5?" Ryo said with red tear streaks down his face, R5 whistled and clicked a response.

"The Wheel? Never heard of it." Ryo said, pondering if they should actually stop off at this weird looking place. There was nothing else nearby on the way to the Illenium system so this would have to do, Ryo landed his ship in one of the hangars and a robotic female voice rang out.

"Ship arrival in Bay 7"

"Thanks weird robot lady!" Ryo responded.

"R5, stay with the ship while I go get the parts." R5 responded with whistles and beeps as Ryo walked off into the many corridors of the wheel. He explored for a bit but his mind began to wander back to what had happened earlier, what did his father mean 'You're the reason they're here'? What did The First Order want from him? Why did they resort to destroying his home and killing his family? Ryo didn't actually know what the ultimate fate of his parents was but he decided to just accept that they were most likely dead, it wasn't a good thing to think and Ryo's eyes began to fill with tears again. However, in this galaxy you have to keep strong or you die; Von had said that to Ryo almost everyday for as long as he could remember. Before Ryo could think about anything else a voice rang out in the distance, it was coming from a middle aged man.

"Freemaker parts for sale! Anyone need spare parts?

"Yeah, I do! My name is Ryo Vaarik and my X-wing got shot at by the first order, I need a KX-9 laser cannon wing base and a 4L4 fusial thrust exhaust.

"Roger Dodger, I'll go get those for ya. Oh, and my name is Rowan Freemaker"

"Thanks, 'Rowan Freemaker'.

The strange man went invited Ryo into his huge hangar where he had a workshop and a landing platform so big that a corellian blockade runner could land. The strange man went into his shed to find the parts while Ryo started exploring, there wasn't any very interesting stuff around. He came across a rounded piece of metal that looked to be some sort of weapon, Ryo picked it up and pressed a small button on the side. A beautiful blue energy blade ignited from the piece of metal that emitted a humming sound, Ryo waved the thing in the air and it buzzed. As he held it up to his face, the blade making the whole room glow blue; Rowan entered the room.

"Where'd you get that? Give back the Lightsaber!

Things are getting juicy aren't they? Probably not. Anyway, see you when I post the next chapter.


	8. Chapter 7: The Wheel Part 2

Ryo deactivated the 'lightsaber' as Rowan called it and placed it back where he found it, the two left the room to go get the sale done.

"Okay, look young man, that lightsaber belongs to me and I've had it for decades. I don't need any trouble with The First Order, ever since I was with the rebellion the Empire caused nothing but trouble and The First Order is the remnants of them. I only just got back my family's old shop and I plan on keeping it, so please. Just forget you saw anything." Ryo was shocked at what Rowan had just told him.

"So, are you a Jedi?"

"I used to be, but since then I've discovered that that's not the life for me."

"Okay then, I'll just take the parts. Here's what I owe you." Ryo handed some credits over and took the parts back to his X-wing where R5 was still waiting, the Droid beeped with joy when he saw Ryo approaching. The two installed everything onto the X-wing, replacing the top left canon and one of the engines. They got into their refurbished starfighter and set off, as the tiny ship left the docking bay a TIE fighter flew past and landed in the same exact hangar. Ryo wondered why they were here, he was tempted to take a shot at them for what they had done to his family but that would alert the entire First Order to the old Jedi that lived there. Ryo decided to just leave it and continue their journey, they jumped into hyperspace to their final destination

The beauty of Hyperspace was replaced by the usual darkness and stars as the little T-65 X-wing approached the planet D'Qar, Ryo took in the massive green planet with it's huge asteroid belt. R5 beeped a positive response to this new place for the two, as they both thought about what had happened back at The Wheel two Resistance T-70 X-wings of Blue squadron formed up on Ryo's wings and set their S-foils to attack position.

'Unidentified craft, state your intent and identity or we will be forced to open fire'

'This is Ryo Vaarik, son of Von Salmi who was a pilot in the Rogue Squadron during the battle against the Empire. My home was destroyed by the first order along with my family and you guys are the only people I have left, I wish to join the resistance.'

'Roger that Ryo, follow us down to the base for a chat with the General.' The pilots set their S-foils back to cruising mode and the three X-wings went down the the surface together, as the Resistance base came into view, Ryo began to ponder what his new life would be like. From a

normal kid living on a boring planet to a fighter pilot against The First Order within a couple of

days, the Resistance base came into view and Ryo got a good look at his new home. T-70's lined every few metres with white and blue markings on them, except for one. A single black and orange X-wing sat with the others as well, people bustled about on the ground and looked up in Awe as an old T-65 flew over them. Ryo landed his X-wing rough but it was still an alright landing, R5 boosted out of the droid socket and joined Ryo. General Leia Organa stepped out of the H.Q building and approached the two, she gave Ryo a stern look and said: Welcome to D'Qar Ryo Vaarik, now let's get you ready for your first mission.

Sorry I've been gone for so long, I'll try to start uploading a bit more but High School's making it difficult. I have ideas for a couple of new Fanfics, one of which ties into this one as well so look forward to that!


	9. Chapter 8 and 9: New home and Battle!

'Now Ryo, are you sure you want to fly with Blue Squadron in that old T-65? We can upgrade you to a T-70 at any moment. You'd have many more proton torpedoes, a more powerful shield, even an underslung cannon that your droid can control-'

'No thank you sir, I would but my T-65 and my droid are the only things keeping the memory of my family with me. I wouldn't trade them for anything, just paint my T-65 in your squadron's colours and I'm happy to join you guys on your next mission.' Ryo and the leader of the Resistance's Blue sqn walked along discussing Ryo's place in the group, they were preparing for a recon mission through the nearby star systems to scour for any traces of the First Order such as TIE fighters or even if they were lucky, a Resurgent Class Battlecruiser to destroy.

"But sir, can a single squadron of X-wings even put up a fight against a ship that size?" Ryo asked.

"They can, but only if they're good pilots and have some tricks up their sleeves. The main ways to win a battle against a Resurgent is to use their size and design against them, they have an open bow which you can actually fly a ship inside which is where the main generators are. Enough hits with Torpedoes and they'll be destroyed which will leave the Cruiser on auxiliary power, no weaponry and only really enough power to fuel the engines and the backup lighting system"

"Wow! I had no idea!"

"But remember, they have endless waves of TIE's as well as anti starfighter weaponry so you'll be extremely lucky to even survive long enough to escape let alone actually put up a fight against one of those things without say a couple of Mon Calamari cruisers." The two ended their conversation and parted ways, Ryo went to his living quarters in the base where R5 was getting used to their new home. Ryo laid down on his bed and processed the events that had happened in his life recently, home and family lost to the First Order as well as finding none other than a retired Jedi on the Wheel. Not a very normal set of events, Ryo got back up and left R5 in the room to meet commander Dameron. In the main briefing room, there were many figures of importance in the Resistance gathered around the main table with the pilots of Blue, Red and Commander Dameron's Black squadron. Admiral Ackbar himself was there along with General Leia Organa of course, the group was discussing the movements of the First Order.

"Well, we know that they may have set up their first ever planet base, odd since they usually keep to their Battlecruisers in space." Ackbar said, pondering the matter.

"Well, there must be something important there so it's probably a good idea to see about sending a strike team eventually." Dameron responded, Ryo could tell from the tone in his voice that he really just wanted to blow up this base, he seemed to have a thing for that...

Chapter 9: Battle!

One month later

"Now, we've located a First Order battlecruiser alone and heading into an asteroid field in the outer rim. This might just be the rarest chance we'll ever get to hit the First Order where it hurts, we'll use the X-wings to take out their canons and as many of their fighters as possible while the Y-wings take advantage of the openings in the bow and destroy the three generators inside the superstructure to put them into auxiliary power, let's get in. And do what we can to either completely cripple it or best case scenario destroy it. Move out!"

Pilot's all scurried frantically around the resistance base on D'Qar, X-wings and Y-wings of Blue Squadron began to lift off and blast away into the upper atmosphere of the planet. Ryo Vaarik and his astromech R5 rushed over to their T-65 which had had it's faded red paint from Rogue Squadron of the Galactic Civil War decades back replaced with vibrant Resistance blue, R5 activated his two little thrusters on his legs and boosted into the Astromech socket of the X-wing, Ryo climbed into the cockpit and began activating the systems. The T-65 lifted off and joined the Resistance T-70s and Y-wings of Blue Squadron in orbit.

"Blue squadron, check in." Blue leader ordered, his squadron all responded one after another with the 'Blue' their assigned numbers, Ryo's being 12.

"Prepare for jump to hyperspace!" Blue squadron all began to jump as Ryo pressed the button, the sight of the stars stretching and entering the blue hue of hyperspace always mesmerised him. After a while, Blue Sqn dropped from hyperspace and formed up into an attack group.

"Alrighty boys, we somehow have managed to catch this monster on it's own moving through an Asteroid field, we've rigged mines in the asteroids and once we get there we'll trigger them and leave the Battlecruiser stuck while we work to disable and hopefully render it useless. Everybody got that?" Blue Sqn all responded with positive answers as the Battlecruiser came into view and Blue Leader triggered the mines. Asteroids all around the ship suddenly exploded into bits and scattered debris in all directions. Most of this debris began battering the engines and hull of the ship, the rest of the chunks of rock surrounded the Battlecruiser and trapped it as the X-wings began to move into position for attack.

"Lock S-foils in attack position" Ryo always loved hearing that because it meant he was about to punch the First Order back for how hard they punched him back then on Ashara.

"Alright! We need to take out the Turbolaser cannons and fighters!, keep them off the bombers leaving the bow! Ryo rolled his fighter to the right as TIEs began to swarm out of the Battlecruiser's hangers. Within no longer than 10 seconds the area around the cruiser had become a mess of fighters, explosions and laser shots. TIEs blew up left and right as the skilled pilots of the Resistance worked tirelessly to destroy as many of them as possible. Ryo lined up his fighter with a row of heavy Turbolasers and fired, a flurry of red beams shot from his four weapons and battered the canons, Ryo pulled up to avoid the coincidental explosions and was hit in an S-foil by a shot from a TIE following him. He maneuvered his ship, desperately trying to avoid the fighter right behind him but to no avail. More and more shots continued to hit his fighter until his shields were almost completely gone. A T-70 swooped down and completely disintegrated the TIE fighter, it formed up on Ryo's wing and the pair of them began systematically targeting Turbolaser cannons and fighters together.

"R5! Can you try to contain that damage to the S-foil, without it we have no closing the wings and no hyperspace!" R5 clicked and whistled and began to work on repairing the damage to the armor on the wing. A group of four Y-wings flew into one of the openings in the bow of the Battlecruiser and opened fire with torpedoes on one of the three huge generators inside which produced power to the ship. As the first generator of three blew up, the lights and power systems throughout the battlecruiser flickered and then returned but dimmer than before. The Y-wings left the bow through another opening as the second group of four began their attack run. Ryo noticed the endless warms of TIEs exiting the hangars all over the Battlecruiser and called up the Squadron leader.

"Sir! Requesting permission to begin destroying the hangar bays, that should give our bombers a fighting chance!"

"Permission granted Vaarik! Take them out!" Ryo began to separate from the rest of the group and flew towards the Starboard hangar bay taking out more Turbolasers and point defense laser cannons as he went. His unknown wingman followed suit and proceeded to assist Ryo by taking out any fighters that tried to intercept them. Ryo spoke over the comms with whoever was piloting the T-70 alongside him.

"Who exactly are you?"

"Name's Zack Hyschel, good to meet you Ryo"

"Good to meet you too Zack, I guess" The two of them arrived at the hangar bay and Ryo flew right inside and came to a hover. Stormtroopers scurried around and rows upon rows of TIE fighters lined the walls. Ryo began to unload his weaponry all through the bay destroying fighters and troops on the ground alike. He swung his fighter from left to right in mid air while holding the trigger down on his control stick. He eventually grew satisfied with the destruction he had caused and left the flaming and smouldering wreckage of a room behind and flew back out into open pace where Zack was ducking and weaving trying to out maneuver three TIEs on his tail. Ryo lined up and blasted two of them to pieces while the other disengaged. Zack instantly idled his throttle and threw his fighter into a backwards flip. The TIE came into his sights and he fired, destroying it with a few shots, Ryo was stunned at the move Zack had pulled and instantly felt the need to learn it. The two returned to the bow right as the second squadron of Y-wings exited the bow after destroying the second generator. The leader of the bombing fleet spoke to Blue leader.

"We've nearly sent the ship into auxiliary power! Just be ready to-" The bombing leader was cut off as a barrage of cannon fire from a turbolaser battery destroyed him and his 3 wingmen.

"The second wave has been destroyed! First wave, it's all down to you to destroy the last generator now!" Blue leader cried frantically to the other four Y-wings. They began to swing back towards the bow as a huge swarm of TIE fighters headed their way.

"Oh no you don't! Blue squadron, destroy those fighters before they intercept the bombers!" Blue squadron all formed up and engaged the TIEs, at first they began to win but eventually more and more T-70s were destroyed. The four Y-wings entered the bow of the ship and were followed by more than 10 TIEs. Only a single bomber managed to launch a pair of torpedoes before they were all obliterated by the fighters chasing them.

"The bombers have all been destroyed sir! We've lost our entire bombing fleet!"

"Not yet! We still have the power to take out that last generator with out own torpedoes and then I'll call in a favor from Cobalt Squadron!"

"Who's Cobalt Squadron?" Ryo asked.

"You seriously don't know who COBALT squadron is kid?" Zack responded.

Ninka Cruiser's (Admiral Holdo's vessel) POV

"Admiral, incoming transmission from Blue leader"

"Patch it through" A hologram appeared of Blue leader's face and it spoke

"Admiral! I need a favor from Cobalt squadron! My team are being whittled down right now by a First Order battlecruiser and we've lost our entire bombing fleet! If we can disable the weapons on the Cruiser can your bombers provide the last punch?"

"We'll be there soon commander!"

"Roger that admiral! Sending coordinates!"

Ryo's POV

Ryo fought on with the remaining dozen or so X-wings from Blue squadron to destroy the last generator inside the bow of the cruiser. Zack and Ryo both flew their ships inside for a bombing run, he activated his targeting computer and it locked on to the generator. They both launched volleys of torpedoes and the generator was blasted to pieces. A huge explosion shook out along the bow and the enormous ship went completely dark and lifeless. Ryo and Zack emerged from the bow followed by a wall of fire and secondary explosions. The entire open portion of the bow nearly split away from the rest of the ship, the TIE's numbers were beginning to thin out now and Blue leader gave the order for Admiral Holdo's fleet to make their move.

"How's this gonna work sir?"

"Well Vaarik, those heavy bombers have enough payload to completely annihilate this entire cruiser and we'd better not be here when that happens to say the least. Everyone full retreat!" The X-wings all grouped up into small formations and began to depart the area as the Battlecruiser came back to life on auxiliary power. None of the armament of the ship board was functional now and the only lighting inside the ship was a dim red light from small LEDs in the walls. Admiral Holdo's Bunker Buster corvette dropped out from hyperspace followed by heavy MG-100 Star fortress bombers of Cobalt Squadron with resistance blue markings on them, the squadron moved into an attack formation and began to speed towards the Cruiser.

An MG-100's crew POV

"Only 500 meters to the target boys! Gunners, stay icy!"

"Roger that! We'll keep any of these punks off us!" The bomber along with the rest of the squadron continued to gain speed as they approached their target. TIE fighters began to attack and the gunners immediately began sniping them from their ball turrets.

Tie fighter pilot's POV

"All fighters swarm individual bombers and overwhelm them one by one! Now!" The TIE fighters all began to group together and as the pilot had said, swarmed a single bomber at the edge of the formation.

Same MG-100's POV

The gunners looked over to the bomber a few spots over from them as it was battered with endless shots, it's armor began to crumble to pieces before the fuel cells ruptured sending the bomber into a huge chain of explosions. The bomb magazine gunner spoke to his comrades

"Can we even make it to the target in time?!"

"We have to try! This might be our only chance to stage an attack like this!" The bombardier responded.

"Just keep shooting them down! There's more firepower and skill in our formation than the entire Star Destroyer!" The gunners worked tirelessly and eventually began thinning out the fighters. They had finally reached the Cruiser and the bombardiers opened the bay doors on every bomber as the formation began to slowly climb away to avoid the imminent destruction. The bombers waited for a few more moments and then one by one they each unloaded their clip of 1,048 onto the Resurgent Battlecruisers hull. Explosions engulfed the ship as the bomber formation swooped upwards, gracefully avoiding the enormous destruction they had caused.

Ryo's POV

Ryo couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with pride at the destruction that he and the rest of the small resistance force present had caused to the giant capital ship.

"All wings, incredible work today. Let's go home." Blue leader said proudly over the comms. The X-wings of Blue squadron closed their S-foils and jumped to hyperspace one after another.

"Hey R5, good work today to you as well buddy. We could have been gonners if you hadn't repaired the ship as well as you did." Ryo stayed behind for a few seconds to watch Cobalt squadron and the Ninka cruiser depart as well before he and R5 both also departed themselves leaving the wreckage of the Resurgent Class Battlecruiser to float aimlessly in space forever...


	10. Chapter 10: Ryo's concern

Ryo Vaarik sat in the cockpit of his X-wing starfighter on the ground at the Resistance base on D'qar, he was still glowing in pride weeks after the mission to bring down the Star Destroyer in the asteroid field but something kept probing the back of his mind. If the First Order had more enormous ships like that hidden away somewhere in the Galaxy, what could this pitiful Resistance force do against them? The entire squadron of Y-wings which were old but still made for good precision attacks had been obliterated during the attack, that had put the Resistance down twelve ships and twelve pilots as well as the X-wings that were lost during the mission as well. Whether or not Ryo wanted to admit it, he was scared of the First Order and what they could do if they found the Resistance base. That planet base the First Order had established also worried Ryo, why if they had those near indestructible capital ships would they want to establish a planetary base? There had to be something powerful there, maybe not something literally powerful like weaponry but maybe knowledge. Ryo's father had always told him this, knowledge is power. At the thought of that, his eyes began to uncontrollably well up. With all the quick paced action of the Resistance, he hadn't been able to get a chance to really think about his family or his home back on Ashara. He saw someone in the distance heading over to him so he quickly tried to wipe his eyes and act like he'd been dozing or something which admittedly he had been over the course of the day.

"C'mon Ryo, I can tell pretty easily that you're awake and you've been crying. What's going on?" Ryo recognized the voice of his friend Zack Hyschel, the two had become a lot more than just wingmen over the past couple of weeks. They'd gotten to know each other and become buddies, they loved talking about different ships and the specs of those ships since they were both very interested in battle tactics and fleets as well as the specific parts of the ships within them like shield strength and armament. They both spent many of their nights combing endlessly through the Resistance database on old Rebel and New Republic Capital ships as well as looked through the flaws of old Imperial designs. It was a great distraction for Ryo from thinking about his family and this stress of the threat of the First Order.

"Okay Zack, you got me. I just got a moment to think and ended up accidentally thinking of my family and my home, it's not that big of a deal. The thing that really has me stressed is thinking about our attack on that Star Destroyer, if the First Order has more of those things then what can a military made up of a few measly Starfighter squadrons do about it?"

Ryo, we have a bigger military than just this. This is just our H.Q. Our fleet is off in the unknown regions, I'll look through the database and see if I can get you some info on the actual ship numbers we have. I can guarantee though, it's not pathetic."

A few hours later…

The sun had set on the Resistance base of D'qar and Ryo was asleep in his quarters when a small holochip slid underneath his door. Ryo's best astromech friend, R5-D4 instantly powered on after the movement triggered his sensors and he began to move towards the holochip. He gave it a quick scan and once he knew it was a safe device he woke Ryo up and pointed him to the device. Ryo got out of bed and grabbed the chip, he placed it on the counter and turned it on. A small message flashed on the hologram which read: "Well, here's everything I could find on our Navy wherever they might be out there in the stars. Not much but it's certainly something." The message was then replaced by a small group of files sorted into ship classes, corvettes, frigates and capital ships. Ryo, knowing ships wanted to keep the capitals a surprise so he looked through the smaller classes of ships first. The Navy had quite a few old rebellion ships like the CR-90 Blockade runner of which there was a handful, there was also the ship that participated against the Star Destroyer, the Ninka which was a Bunker Buster Corvette. It apparently had three nuclear warheads as part of it's armament which was interesting, afterwards Ryo looked through the Frigates of which there were at least a few. A couple of old Nebulon Bs and a newer model named the Nebulon C which served as the Resistance's hospital ship. Ryo then moved onto Capital ships and although it wasn't much, it certainly put his mind at ease. The Resistance at the time had two Capital ships, the Echo of Hope which was an MC-80 Liberty type Cruiser. That ship had the most weaponry in the fleet, then there was the Home One, an MC-80a or Home one type. Admiral Ackbar's flagship during the time of the Rebellion, it was impressive for a Rebellion ship although looking through and adding these files together the entire fleet still didn't have even have a quarter the firepower of a Resurgent class Star Destroyer which was fitted with over a thousand turbolaser cannons. This may have seemed like bad news but it still got rid of the concern in Ryo's mind about how big the Resistance actually was as a military, Mon Cal cruisers after all were known for their near infinite shield power and multi layered extremely thick and powerful armored hulls which made up for their lack of firepower. With this new info, Ryo certainly got a much better and well needed amount of sleep that night...


	11. Chapter 11: Colours of Crimson part 1-5

As the sunrise slowly lit up the Resistance base on D'qar, the vibrant and warm orange rays slowly began to bring the cold and gloomy area to life as some early morning workers began their chores. They checked over the X-wings each in their little cubby holes grooved into the sides of the what was once most likely a riverbed eons ago. Ryo Vaarik and his astromech, R5-D4 both arose around the same time, Ryo made his way out of the H.Q. and climbed up the hill to lean against one of the dozens of large antenna arrays that dotted all over the area in and around the base. Zack Hyschel also emerged from the base a little while later when the sun had completely cleared the horizon on it's arch into the sky, he already knew where Ryo would be as he was always leaning against that same antenna post every single morning. Although he never could figure out what Ryo was thinking, he knew even though the sunset was bright beautiful; there were gloomy thoughts in Ryo's mind.

What Ryo was always doing while looking at the sunrise was remembering Ashara and what had happened to him and nearly everything he loved. But he always tried to keep himself calm despite the thoughts, they kept trying to break into his mindset but for some reason he just sort of knew he couldn't let them. Like an exterior force was telling him not to let the dark thoughts in. He always decided in the end to go with this exterior motive and just let the dark thoughts exit his mind once the sun had cleared the horizon every morning.

"Ryo! Buddy, whatcha doing up there?" Zack asked from below, Ryo simply responded with the same single word as he always did.

"Thinking"

"Well, I just got here from speaking with the General" Zack responded, this perked Ryo's ears up and he turned around.

"She says she wants to see you"

"Do you know what about?" Ryo asked, feeling slightly nervous. Had he done something wrong? Maybe when Zack copied those files on the fleet out of the database, he had done something against the rules of the Resistance. Ryo cautiously entered the main H.Q. area there was General Leia, the leader of the entire Resistance.

"Erm, you wanted to see me ma'am?" Ryo's voice faltered slightly and Leia instantly picked up on this.

"Don't worry Vaarik, you're not in trouble. Far from it actually, Zack's been telling me you seem a bit glum every morning when you go outside?"

"Damn you Zack." Ryo cursed his friend under his breath.

"Ahh… Yeah, kind of. These thoughts about what the First Order did to my family, they keep coming back to me. I still remember seeing my protocol droid's head fall at my feet in sparks. And then I remember when we took down that behemoth of a ship a while back, and those thoughts make me want to do it again. Over and over and over again forever!" Ryo suddenly snapped back to reality, he hadn't even had control over what he had just said. His lips just moved and the words came out. Leia looked a little surprised but had her usual warm expression on.

"Vaarik, I think what you might need is some time away to clear your head. I'm not saying a vacation exactly but maybe something more along the lines of a transfer for a few days. Crimson Squadron just lost a pilot, do you think you can handle doing that? It'll certainly take you mind off of things. They tend to see a lot more action then our squadrons do." Ryo went over the thought in his mind and eventually responded with

"Sure, why not. Seems like I probably need a bit of a distraction right now, how am I getting there?" Leia replied with

"The cruiser Echo of Hope is arriving tonight with a load of supplies on it's run between the Hosnian system, here and a few other stops. You'll join them in one of the loading shuttles before they depart."

Later that evening

The MC80 Liberty type cruiser, the Echo of Hope dropped out of lightspeed over D'qar. The Captain said over the comms to the base

"Resistance base, this is the Echo of Hope on our supply offload and I believe if the manifest is right we're supposed to be bringing some cargo along with us from here to Crimson squadron? A certain pilot if I'm correct?" The base responded within a few minutes once they had gathered the data together.

"Roger that Echo of Hope, you would be correct with that." One of the small transport craft exited the hangar bay of the MC80 and sped down to the base below. Once the transport landed and began to shut down it was swarmed with officers and soldiers unloading the goods it carried, Ryo headed over and looked into the crates that were taken off. There were hundreds of thousands of ration packs as well as a lot of interesting infantry weapons and handheld explosives.

"What are these weapons for? I thought we fought all our battles in space?" Ryo asked one of the officers.

"They're for an upcoming mission, there was discussion a little while back about a planetary base the First Order have set up and we sent an order for these since it's gonna have to be primarily a ground battle." Ryo remembered the briefing before the Star destroyer battle and wondered what it was this ground team would be doing during the mission.

"Well, hopefully I make it back here before this mission happens. I kinda want to see what's there." R5 arrived with a large hover cart carrying Ryo's items. They both unloaded the stuff together into the transport and then both entered, taking a seat by the window. They didn't exactly have much of a choice since all the seats were at the window but oh well, good view anyway. The transport fired up it's engine and blasted away from the base, Ryo looked out across the beautiful lush landscape of D'qar as rather ironically; the sun had nearly completely set. The last sliver of sunlight left that side of the planet as the Echo of Hope jumped to lightspeed with Ryo and R5 on board…

The two explored the seemingly endless hallways of the MC80, ever since first looking through the ship data files at the base with Zack; Ryo had fallen in love with Mon Calamari designs. Apparently many of the more cylindrical types were originally skyscrapers or in this case surface scrapers under the waters on the planet of Mon Cala before being converted to cruisers. This meant they had unbelievably strong hulls to withstand the extreme water pressures, other variants such as this very class: the Liberty were made in the planetary shipyards in space above the planet to be exploration cruisers. Then later on once the Empire arrived and decided the Mon Calamari weren't sentient beings and began to bombard the planet and enslave it's people, the Mon Calamari just left it behind in their ships. This lead to the old Rebel Alliance to gain it's first ever fleet of ships that could directly engage a fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers. Ryo had a certain love for these ships due to their incredibly strong shields, the Mon Calamari were famous for that aspect of their ships. Near impenetrable shields and sometimes multi layered extremely strong hulls underneath, suddenly Ryo was snapped out of his state of being lost in thought and the first thing he saw out the porthole was the vibrant blue of hyperspace be replaced by stars. They had arrived at wherever Crimson Squadron currently were...


	12. Chapter 12: Colours of Crimson part 2-5

"Crimson Leader, this is Echo of Hope with the inbound package you were set to receive. Orders of General Organa."

"Roger that Echo of Hope, proceed to planet surface for drop off." The squadron of MG-100 Starfortress bombers with crimson red markings proceeded to lead the MC80 cruiser down into the atmosphere where one of the bombers came to a hover a few meters over the ground and a ladder extended from it's now open payload doors. One of the transports left the hangar on the cruiser with Ryo and R5 on board and came down to meet the bomber squadron. Ryo noticed they were the same type of bombers from the attack on the Destroyer a month or so back but those had blue markings on them and they were named Cobalt Squadron, not Crimson squadron. Ryo wondered what kind of missions they would be doing here on this rather strange looking planet. It didn't seem like any planet he'd heard of, it was sort of a forest covered place. The trees were unfamiliar and very different to any trees he had ever seen before, many of them were bright unusual colors for plants like orange and purple, very different to the murky green covering D'qar.

"So, forgive me for asking but… What exactly are we doing here?" Ryo asked the crew, one of them responded

"Well, we're here on a resource mining operation. Resistance needs to get funds somehow and this is the quickest way to do it, we were actually about to start an op right now so that's lucky you've arrived. Isaamar here is quite the awful pilot."

"I am not! I'm better than you would be!" Another guy answered who Ryo assumed would be the supposed "awful pilot". R5 gave a series of beeps and whistles before doing a sort of droid laugh. Isaamar looked at the droid in shock before the first guy said

"Hah! See Isa! Even the droid reckons you would be! Ah well, nice to meet ya kid; names Cadvice Rouleck and you are?"

"Eh.. Ryo Vaarik sir, nice to meet you I guess." Ryo answered nervously, everyone here was way older than him. He was only very recently 15 cycles old, these guys all looked at least over 20.

"So, you look pretty young Ryo. How'd someone your age get a pilot's spot in the Resistance?"

"Well, I kinda had nowhere else to go. First Order destroyed my home and killed my family, I still don't even know why. They just showed up one day with a massive walker and TIE fighters and destroyed everything, I escaped in my father's old X-wing with R5 here. They're the only parts of home I still have left so I don't plan to let them go." Ryo said, it was the first time he'd told really anyone in detail what happened to his family and where he came from.

"Well, sorry to hear that Ryo. We better get going, you sure you can handle something a bit bigger than an X-wing?" Cadvice asked.

"Well, I'll probably have a shaky start but I should learn the ropes pretty quick. These bombers were in the database back at HQ, I remember reading up on them. Slow and can't take a whole lot of hits but they more than make up for it with the payload they carry, correct?"

"Yeah, seems about right" Cadvice responded.

"Well, I guess I'll jump in there and take a look around. Once I'm familiar with the cockpit I guess we can go do whatever we're doing here." Ryo said, he climbed aboard the bomber and went straight to the cockpit. Once he was behind the controls he began to figure out the systems and layout fairly quick, once he and the crews were all ready they fired up the engines and Crimson Squadron lifted away to prepare for their work.


End file.
